09/06/2025

MONDAY | JUNE 9, 2025

9

Ecuador passes anti-gang reforms QUITO: Ecuador’s National Assembly on Saturday approved a reform backed by President Daniel Noboa to arm the government with new legal powers to confront armed groups and dismantle drug trafficking networks. The Bill was backed by 84 of 141 lawmakers present in the legislature. Forty-six lawmakers voted against it, 10 abstained and one turned in a blank vote. Noboa, 37, who began a full four-year term last month, declared an “internal armed conflict” in January last year against criminal gangs, just a couple of months after he was first inaugurated as president. Since declaring the campaign, Noboa has issued emergency decrees to put military boots on the ground alongside police, significantly ramping up security forces. He has also overseen an increase in prison sentences for drug-related crimes and is pursuing closer collaboration with the United States and other nations for intelligence sharing and resources. The new legal framework gives Noboa more freedom to redirect resources towards crime-fighting measures. He will also have the power to pardon police and military personnel for their conduct in security operations. Officers under criminal investigation will also avoid pre-trial detention but will be subject to evaluations every six months, according to the approved text. The reforms introduce penalties of up to 30 years for fuel theft, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars for the oil industry. Authorities say this crime, along with illegal mining, has grown in recent years and is a key source of funding for criminal gangs. Assets linked to criminal groups can now be seized by security forces, a significant shift allowing for prompt confiscation compared with previous, often lengthy, judicial processes for asset forfeiture. Individuals who lead, belong to, or collaborate with these groups will face prison sentences of up to 30 years. – Reuters RUSSIA ADVANCES DEEPER INTO UKRAINE MOSCOW: Russia said yesterday it was pushing into eastern Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in its three-year offensive, a significant territorial escalation. Moscow claims to have annexed five regions of Ukraine, but has not made a formal claim over Dnipropetrovsk. The Defence Ministry said forces from a tank unit had “reached the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic and are continuing to develop an offensive in the region”. The advance of Russian forces into yet another region of Ukraine is both a symbolic and strategic blow to Kyiv’s forces after months of setbacks on the battlefield. Ukraine has never had to fight on the territory of the central region until now. Dnipropetrovsk is an important mining and industrial hub. – AFP EX-REFORM U.K. CHAIR YUSUF RETURNS TO PARTY LONDON: Zia Yusuf said on Saturday he would return to Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, two days after quitting as its chair, blaming his abrupt resignation on exhaustion. “After 11 months of working as a volunteer to build a political party from scratch, with barely a day off, my tweet was a decision born of exhaustion,”Yusuf said on X. Yusuf said he would focus on a new role overseeing an Elon Musk-inspired “UK DOGE team” within Reform that the party hopes will reduce wasteful spending at the councils it controls. Yusuf resigned on Thursday hours after a row with a Reform lawmaker over her call for a ban on the burqa , the full-length garment worn by some Muslim women. – Reuters

Firefighters train a hose at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City. – REUTERSPIC

Body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza

abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week. Mujahedeen Brigades have previously denied killing captives. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to be still alive. The military said on Saturday it had killed As’ad Abu Sharaiya, who served as the head of the Mujahideen, but there was no confirmation from the group. Israel has in recent weeks expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered. Medics in Gaza said 55 people in total were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday.

More than one missile landed in the area. The target seemed to have been a multi-storey residential building, but the explosion damaged several other houses nearby, according to witnesses and media. The Israeli military later warned people to evacuate the nearby district of Jabalia, saying it was going to strike there after rockets were launched in the vicinity. The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza’s hospitals only had fuel for three more days and that Israel was denying access for international relief agencies to areas where fuel storages designated for hospitals are located. There was no immediate response from the Israeli military or COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates humanitarian matters with the Palestinians. The military said it had uncovered “a tunnel and a command and control centre from which senior Hamas commanders” operated beneath the European Hospital compound in southern Gaza.– Reuters The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known. Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez offered a reward for information about who was behind the shooting. In a video address to the nation, President Gustavo Petro also promised investigations to find the perpetrators of the “day of pain”. “What matters most today is that all Colombians focus with the energy of our hearts, with our will to live ... on ensuring that Dr Miguel Uribe stays alive.” In an earlier statement, Petro condemned the violence as “an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia”. The shooting was similarly condemned across the political spectrum and from overseas, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “a direct threat to democracy”. – AFP

o Israeli airstrikes kill 55

CAIRO: The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage held in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, as airstrikes killed 55 people. Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed aid group, said on Saturday it was unable to distribute assistance to civilians, blaming threats by Hamas, which Gaza’s dominant group denied. Israel’s military said Pinta had been

BR I E F S

At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded by airstrikes in the Gaza City district of Sabra in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, local health authorities said. Colombian presidential contender shot

BOGOTA: A Colombian right wing presidential candidate who was shot during a campaign event in Bogota has successfully undergone initial surgery, the city’s mayor said yesterday. Senator Miguel Uribe (pic) , 39,

hours” of recovery. His wife, in an audio recording shared with media, said “he came out well from the surgery.” “He fought the first battle and fought it well. He is fighting for his life,” she is heard saying. Images from the scene of the shooting showed Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding.

was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee before being detained. A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor who is believed to be 15 years old. Uribe was airlifted to hospital in “critical condition” and underwent a “neurosurgical” and “peripheral vascular procedure”, the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogota confirmed. He “overcame the first surgical procedure”, Bogota mayor Carlos Fernando Galan told media, adding that he had entered “the critical

The suspect was injured in the affray and was receiving treatment, said police director Carlos Fernando Triana. Two others, a man and a woman, were also wounded, and a Glock-style firearm was seized. “Our hearts are broken, Colombia hurts,”said Carolina Gomez, a 41-year-old businesswoman, as she prayed with candles for Uribe’s health.